scholarly journals Examination of first generation biofuel production in some selected biofuel producing countries in Europe: A case study

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (No. 10) ◽  
pp. 469-476
Author(s):  
Katalin Takács-György ◽  
Anett Lászlók ◽  
István Takács

The EU is committed to increasing the use of renewable energy sources. In the sector of transportation, the share of renewable energy is to reach 10% by 2020 and 14% by 2030, respectively, in the EU. According to the latest forecasts, the production of the first-generation biofuels made from food raw materials is showing a declining tendency in the main European producing countries. Therefore, the objective of our research is to forecast the production of some selected biofuel producing countries within the EU as well as the traditional biofuel production in Hungary. The question of land use changes due to the new regulations is crucial. Our examinations were carried out by using Verhulst’s logistic function based on the biofuel production data of EUROSTAT. The function has already reached the saturation level in Germany, France and Sweden but in the case of other examined countries, biofuel production is also in the phase of slowing growth. Furthermore, findings are also justified by the 2015 regulation that restricts the share of producing first-generation biofuels in the final energy consumption to 7% and promotes the production of advanced biofuels, thereby decreasing the indirect change in land use and increasing sustainable crop production.

Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Karol Zglinicki ◽  
Rafał Małek ◽  
Krzysztof Szamałek ◽  
Stanisław Wołkowicz

The European Commission has adopted the European Green Deal strategy, which aims to achieve climate neutrality in the EU by 2050. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to shift the economy toward the use of green and renewable energy. Critical raw materials (CRMs), Li, Co, REE, Te, Sc and others, are used in renewable energy sources (RES) production. The EU lacks its own CRM deposits, and additionally, the access to already identified deposits is limited, which is making the EU countries search for alternative CRM sources. One such source of CRMs may be mining waste generated on the Indonesian island of Bangka as a result of processing cassiterite-bearing sands. Studies of the mineral composition of the waste using the XRD method reveal rich contents of xenotime (0.79–17.55 wt%), monazite (1.55–21.23 wt%), zircon (1.87–64.35 wt%) and other minerals, carriers of valuable metals, such as Sn, Ti, Nb, Ta. The point mineral chemistry analyses were performed using EPMA. Xenotime is the main carrier of heavy rare earth elements (HREE), especially the “most critical” HREEs: Gd2O3 (1.42–7.16 wt%), Dy2O3 (2.28–11.21 wt%), Er2O3 (2.44–7.85 wt%), and Yb2O3 (1.71–7.10 wt%). Xenotime is characterized by a complex internal structure resulting from metasomatic processes occurring during their formation. In SEM-BSE imaging, they show zonation of internal structure, which is the effect of an HREE, Y, Si and U substitution in the crystal structure. On the other hand, thorite ThSiO4 and uranothorite (Th,U)SiO4 inclusions are present in xenotimes. The ICP-MS/ES studies of tailings reveal very high contents of HREE + Y (up to 7.58 wt%), U (up to 0.11), Th (up to 0.75 wt%) and Sc (132 ppm). A CRM source diversification is part of the strategy to ensure the security of raw materials for countries of the European Union and the green transformation of the continent. Bilateral EU–Indonesia cooperation in the geological exploration and development of primary and secondary sources may contribute to an increase in the supply of HREEs to the global market.


Author(s):  
S.V. Goncharov ◽  
◽  
V.V. Karpachyov ◽  

The 21st century is entering the era of a leading to the development of environmentally clean and renewable energy sources, decarbonization and a decrease in global consumption of primary energy in the form of hydrocarbons in the European Union, the United States and other countries. A number of countries have a mandatory level of biofuel use, supported by tax incentives and subsidies. The EU Red Standard and the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard are policy initiatives that keep the demand for biofuels growing. In the next decade, the consumption of vegetable oils for biofuel production is projected to grow by 15%. The sowing area of oil crops in the Russian Federation in 2020 amounted to 14.3 million hectares, while 23% of the processing capacities of 25 million tons were not loaded. Turkey, Egypt and Iran will be among the top 5 major importers of Russian oil, along with China and India. Soybean and rapeseed are the main crops for processing into biodiesel. According to forecasts, the export of rapeseed oil may reach 1.1– 1.4 million tons by 2024. Renewable sources of primary energy consumption in Russia should reach 6% in its structure by 2040, which implies the development of alternative energy including the production of raw materials for biodiesel in.


Processes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 1588
Author(s):  
Sanja Potrč ◽  
Lidija Čuček ◽  
Mariano Martin ◽  
Zdravko Kravanja

Increasing the use of renewable energy sources is one of the most important goals of energy policies in several countries to build a sustainable energy future. This contribution proposes the synthesis of a biorefinery supply network for a case study of the European Union (EU-27) under several scenarios based on a mathematical programming approach. Several biomass and waste sources, such as grains, waste oils, and lignocellulosics, are proposed to be utilized, and various biofuels including first, second, and third generations are produced such as bioethanol, green gasoline, biodiesel, Fischer Tropsch (FT) diesel, and hydrogen. The aim of this study is to evaluate the capabilities of EU-27 countries to be able to meet the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) target regarding the share of renewable energy in the transport sector by 2030 in each Member State while not compromising the current production of food. A generic mathematical model has been developed for the multi-period optimization of a biorefinery supply network with the objective of maximizing sustainability profit. The solutions obtained show that biomass and waste are promising raw materials to reach and go beyond the EU’s renewable energy target in the transport sector for the year 2030. However, some countries would need to provide additional subsidies for their companies to achieve at least a non-negative economic performance of biofuel production.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1570
Author(s):  
Tomasz Rokicki ◽  
Aleksandra Perkowska ◽  
Bogdan Klepacki ◽  
Piotr Bórawski ◽  
Aneta Bełdycka-Bórawska ◽  
...  

The paper’s main purpose was to identify and present the current situation and changes in energy consumption in agriculture in the European Union (EU) countries. The specific objectives were the determination of the degree of concentration of energy consumption in agriculture in the EU countries, showing the directions of their changes, types of energy used, and changes in this respect, establishing the correlation between energy consumption and changes in the economic and agricultural situation in the EU countries. All member states of the European Union were deliberately selected for research on 31 December 2018 (28 countries). The research period covered the years 2005–2018. The sources of materials were the literature on the subject, and data from Eurostat. Descriptive, tabular, and graphical methods were used to analyze and present materials, dynamics indicators with a stable base, Gini concentration coefficient, concentration analysis using the Lorenz curve, coefficient of variation, Kendall’s tau correlation coefficient, and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. A high concentration of energy consumption in agriculture was found in several EU countries, the largest in countries with the largest agricultural sector, i.e., France and Poland. There were practically no changes in the concentration level. Only in the case of renewable energy, a gradual decrease in concentration was visible. More and more countries developed technologies that allow the use of this type of energy. However, the EU countries differed in terms of the structure of the energy sources used. The majority of the basis was liquid fuels, while stable and gaseous fuels were abandoned in favor of electricity and renewable sources—according to which, in the EU countries, the research hypothesis was confirmed: a gradual diversification of energy sources used in agriculture, with a systematic increase in the importance of renewable energy sources. The second research hypothesis was also confirmed, according to which the increase in the consumption of renewable energy in agriculture is closely related to the economy’s parameters. The use of renewable energy is necessary and results from concern for the natural environment. Therefore, economic factors may have a smaller impact.


2020 ◽  
pp. 117-133
Author(s):  
L.Hr. Melnyk ◽  
O.N. Derykolenko ◽  
Yu.O. Mazin ◽  
O.I. Matsenko ◽  
V.S. Piven

Energy security and independence is one of the key points in sustainable development. In modern conditions of rapid growth and development of technologies, more and more attention is paid to finding practical solutions for environmentally friendly and inexpensive energy production. For a long time, scientists from various fields of scientific activity around the world have been engaged in the development and use of alternative energy sources. The share of renewable energy sources in the generation of electricity around the world is growing steadily, which indicates an increase in the use of energy obtained from alternative sources, such as, for example, wind and sun. These trends testify to the desire of consumers to abandon the use of fossil energy sources and nuclear power plants as much as possible in order to ensure further sister development. Under the current conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for electricity worldwide has decreased, however, as the study shows, this pandemic has not affected the development of renewable energy. The article analyzes modern trends in the development of renewable energy, taking into account the experience of the EU countries and leading countries of the world in this area. As a result, it was concluded that in modern conditions, to achieve sustainable development, transformation processes are needed in such an important area as energy. Various processes in the global economy, which contributed to the intensive development of alternative energy sources, served as a powerful impetus for such changes. Many countries have made significant progress in the development of renewable energy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17(32) (2) ◽  
pp. 126-135
Author(s):  
Łukasz Kozar

The article presents changes that occurred in the production of electricity from renewable energy sources in the EU-28 and in Poland in the years of 2010-2015. The analysis of the changes was based on the data from Eurostat and the Local Data Bank. Based on the indicator of the share of electricity generated from renewable sources in gross electricity consumption, Poland in the period under discussion, was characterized as one of the highest dynamics of change among all EU countries. In addition, the article analyzes the situation concerning the production of electricity in Poland in the regional aspect. From the taken analyzes, it is clear that in all voivodeships, apart from Małopolskie voivodeship, in 2015, more electricity was produced from renewable sources compared to 2010. In the period under discussion, the share of electricity production from renewable sources in total electricity production also increased by 99% in Poland.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18(33) (4) ◽  
pp. 250-258
Author(s):  
Anna Klepacka

The aim of this article was to show the position of Poland in the renewable energy subsectors among the European Union countries. The research covered the areas of biomass, solar heating and heat pumps, showing the degree of their utilization, power required to drive the system and their production in 2016. The provided information was supplemented with a revenues per employee in thousand euros in chosen subsectors of renewable energy sources in the year 2016. The main tool for carrying out the set objective was the use of descriptive and comparative methods. The results of the survey demonstrated Poland’s prominent place in the sector of liquid biofuels (1st place in EU), thanks to the significant supply of raw materials as well as development perspectives in solar energy, which is confirmed by the world's statistics indicating a record number of photovoltaic installations fitted (PV).


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marijke Welisch ◽  
Gustav Resch ◽  
André Ortner

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to provide estimation results for feasibility of renewable energy source (RES) deployment in Turkey, the Western Balkans and North Africa. From these results, the potential for cooperation in renewables production between the countries and the European Union (EU) is assessed and evaluated, in a mid- (2030) and long-term (up to 2040) perspective. Design/methodology/approach The authors focus on the quantitative assessments undertaken on the extent to which RES cooperation can create mutual benefits, identifying costs and benefits for both sides, but in particular with respect to RES target achievement (2020 and 2030) at EU level. The potentials for RES generation in Turkey, North Africa and the Western Balkans are calculated under different policy pathways, taking into account different levels of economic and non-economic barriers that could occur. Findings Overall, the authors found that increasing RES deployment in the three analysed regions and initiating or intensifying cooperation with EU28 Member States leads to mutual benefits. Concretely, these benefits become apparent in terms of the EU Member States importing renewable energy sources for electricity with a good resource quality and adding on to their targets for RES deployment. At the same time, substantial savings occur for the EU, in turn leading to income and investments in the cooperating regions. Originality/value The assessment underlying this paper is the first of its kind to the authors’ knowledge that opens up the geographical spread in comparison to merely assessing cooperation between Europe and the Middle East and North Africa. Furthermore, the multitude of policy parameters analysed provides detailed and robust insights concerning a broad variety of different possible scenarios.


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